One of two Neteller co-founders were plead guilty today to charges of handling billions of dollars in transfers to and from illegal Internet gambling websites.

It was the 5pm start of yet another tournament here at the World Series. I began it as I normally, walking through the field and looking for familiar faces. There were my buddies Chris “savemyskin” Fargis and a fellow blogger, Garth. And, hey! There’s Daniel Negreanu. Best, I get a picture of him, right?

Normally, when taking a picture, I get down on a knee or steady myself on the back of a chair. However, it seemed like a lot of people hadn’t shown up yet, and I do something I never do. I put my butt in a chair.

“You wanna raise, buddy?”

I looked around and realized I’d sat right down in the four seat in front of a live stack. Dewey Tomko was looking at me with a wide smile.

“Come on! Let’s gamble!” he said.

It was then I realized I’d somehow sat down in the middle of a…get this…$1,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw rebuy event. It was something I had a hard time wrapping my feeble brain around. I have a better than average understanding of hold’em games. I can hold my own in Omaha. I can putter along without embarrassing myself in the stud games. Oh, and I’m a freakin’ Pai Gow champion. However, 2-7 Triple Draw is a game that might make me cry if I tried to play it at this level. Not only that, but, pardon me…a limit rebuy tournament? What gives?

My picture of Negreanu became more important. After all, when Doyle Brunson was looking for somebody to write the 2-7 chapter in Super System 2, he picked Daniel. Picture taken, I scooted away before Tomko could talk me into playing the stack or, worse, get me out on the golf course.

Daniel Negreanu

Once acclimated to my surroundings, Fargis’ appearance made sense. Despite being a young guy, he is a champion in this event. The second to last time I was in Tunica, Fargis won the Triple Draw championship there. A few minutes before the event started, I saw Fargis giving Justin Bonomo a quick primer on how to play.

If there’s anybody else I know personally who plays this game at the professional level, it’s Greg Raymer. Greg may have his World Series bracelet in no-limit hold’em, but 2-7 is his game. About six months ago, I started talking with Greg about the game. Five minutes later, the cleaning crew was cleaning my gray matter off the walls.

I couldn’t find Greg and decided he must be dead. Greg is rarely late and I know that if there was one event he wasn’t going to miss, it was this one. After walking through the field three times, I was trying to find a way to tell Greg’s wife about his premature demise. Fortunately, as I walked out, Greg was just getting settled in and making himself some green tea.

Greg Raymer

On the surface, this game looks like nothing but a gambler’s draw game. However, a few minutes with Fargis or Greg and you’ll learn how much strategy there is to it. It’s enough to send me running for the Pai Gow tables and hoping the dealer pulls a nine-high.

The game is now an hour old and is so stacked with pros. I spotted Victor Ramdin, Bill Chen, and Terrence Chan getting settled in for a long night. Unlike other tournaments, I’m not going to make any predictions about this one.

My head can only take so many explosions.

It was the 5am news. I was up late checking in on the HORSE final table and checking in on PokerStars’ announcement of the new Asia Pacific Poker Tour tournament series. Back in my room, the local NBC morning news was on. A man with exceptionally…tall…hair told me it was going to be hot in Vegas.

“Well, no kidding,” I thought, yawning.

I don’t watch a lot of TV news anymore, so it’s no surprise that I see virtually none when I am in Vegas. That accounts for my deficiency in understanding Sin City weatherguy vocabulary. When he says it’s going to be hot in Vegas, that the winds will blow in smoke from California wildfires, and, again, that it’s going to be hot, one should simply just stay in bed. Or, at the very least, one should walk around naked.

I left the Player’s Pavilion overflow tent twenty minutes ago and I’m still sweating. The inside of the Rio reminds me of summer days when I would shove my head in the fridge just to cool off. The overflow tent, while well-air-conditioned on a normal day, is doing nothing to fight off the 100+ temperatures beating down today.

Frankly, I wouldn’t have stayed as long, but I ran into my colleague Maria who writes the PokerStars Brazilian blog.

Maria with the Brazilians

Maria is working like a champ here at the World Series and following the Brazilians all over the strip. Today, she was drinking coffee–coffee!–in the middle of the tent while sweating (not the kind of sweating I was doing) a guy named Andre Akkari. Maria introduced me to Andre and I found him to be a really nice guy. He wasn’t sweating, which I think is something he owes to living south of the equator.

Andre Akkari

Watch this space for more on Akkari. And, while I don’t understand a damned word of what she’s writing, I get the impression Maria is doing a bang-up job over there on the Brazilian Poker Blog. So, if you speak Portuguese or can at least read it, go check her out.

***

Barry Greenstein can find the silver lining in a place where no clouds even exist. After busting out of the Stud Hi-Lo event, he was happy one opponent scooped. That meant Barry only had to sign one copy of “Ace on the River” for the person who busted him. When Barry signs his book, he writes out his hand and the one that beat him.

“So, that’s the bright side,” he said. “It’s not the cost of the book. It’s having to write out two different stud hands in two different books. Some people like to stick around for the cameras when they bust out. You know me. I don’t hang around.”

Barry Greenstein

A few tables over, Humberto Brenes sat with his shark card capper at the ready. Apparently it had been danger today.

“You missed me stomping Humberto’s shark,” Barry said.

The shock on my face must have been pretty clear.

“Well, I gave him a break. I stomped beside it,” Barry said. “I’m going to wait for him to make a final table.”

Both men are playing with seemingly every poker player in the Western Hemisphere today.

Humberto Brenes

At least they are playing indoors, ’cause, mama, it’s hot outside.

The state that is inches away from full fledged gambling casinos has just moved one step closer to that goal as yesterday a new law allowing no limit Texas hold ‘em was enacted.

Following sanctions put on the United States by many nations around the world, more congressmen are signing on to a bill that would legalize and regulate Internet gambling